1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to data processing and, in particular, to document magnification. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method, apparatus, and program for magnification of information with user controlled look ahead and look behind contextual information.
2. Description of Related Art
Prior art screen magnification software magnifies an area selected by a user. The magnification software may use features like focus tracking, wherein the area of interest on the display screen automatically moves in response to the manipulation of a mouse pointer. Color reversal may also be used to sharpen the clarity of magnified text and images. Magnification software may be associated with an operating system or an application to allow a user to select and magnify areas of interest. The areas of interest may include images; however, more particularly, an area of interest may include text, such as fine print or text that is difficult to read.
Another class of software is screen reading software. Screen readers highlight words as they are presented as audible speech. The highlighting may take the form of contrasting color, for example. Screen reader software is particularly useful for hearing impaired users. Some prior art software programs combine screen readers with magnifiers. Thus the software may magnify text as it is presented as audible speech, allowing users to more easily see text as it is read.
However, prior art magnification software uniformly magnifies the content of interest. Thus, the user may miss contextual information, particularly when the subject matter being magnified is textual. People rarely ready by isolating a single word at a time. Prior art magnification software is not ideally suitable for actually reading and comprehending text. A visually impaired user may use magnification software to see text in a document; however, it may be difficult to read and comprehend magnified text without contextual information. Similarly, an area of interest in an image is more meaningful with surrounding contextual information. Prior art magnification software does not effectively allow a magnified area of interest to be seen in its context.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide an improved magnification of information with user controlled look ahead and look behind information.